Hannah Schzde is a string player and songwriter from Mexico City now based in Boston.
Interview conducted May 31, 2021
By Dan Locke
Hannah Schzde (“Sheez-dae”) is a singer/songwriter and violinist born and raised in Mexico City now based in Boston, MA. Rhythmic and complex, Hannah draws the majority of her musical inspiration from her roots and culture, leaning heavily onto percussive rhythms, “protestor spirit”, and colorful visual metaphors that blur lines between reality and imagination.
You are from Mexico City. What is your upbringing?
I was born in Mexico City and lived there until I was 20 years old before I moved to the US to jumpstart my career in music. As a female high school student in Mexico City, I learned to move around on my own in the crowded and hectic streets of the hub to commute back and forth to school, music classes, rehearsals, and to hang out with my friends. While living in the city, I became very driven and independent and if there was something I wanted to achieve I would do whatever I could to make it happen. I’m very grateful that my parents have always believed in me and were always there to support me when I wasn’t able to afford things on my own yet. It was thanks to them and my stubborn determination that I was able to move out of the country to a completely new city on the other side of the continent to pursue my dream of being a professional musician.
How did you discover music?
I discovered music pretty much from the moment I was born. My parents are both medical doctors but they both played musical instruments (my dad used to play guitar and piano and my mom still plays piano and cello) and both of them were part of musical ensembles at some point in their lives before medical school. Whenever we are together in day-to-day life or during family gatherings, there is always music playing. Anything along the lines of J.S. Bach, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Juan Gabriel, Mocedades, Antônio Carlos Jobim, Chico Buarque, ABBA, The Carpenters, The Beatles, and Pink Floyd.
I think the reason why my music is so eclectic is that there were so many musical genres ingrained in my psyche by my parents’ musical tastes which don’t differ too much from mine.
How did you start to write music?
There’s a couple of instances I remember very well as the first few times I tried my hand at writing music. Before I began playing the violin, I was studying piano and guitar pretty heavily and I remember being able to write a couple of tunes in both instruments with ease. This happened very organically and I remember feeling good about being able to create something musical out of thin air. This was all part of a self-discovery process that would eventually lead to my decision to have a career in music.
In regards to songwriting, I first started writing lyrics as part of a strike of inspiration that hit me when I heard “Creep” by Radiohead and “Plush” by Stone Temple Pilots for the first time. I was intrigued by the way songwriters could express their feelings with words tied to beautiful melodies within a song. Since then, I began to write a lot in hopes of being able to record and release my own songs at some point in life.
How did you get your first violin, and do you still have it?
My first violin was a factory-made Stradivarius that my mom got for me at a musical instrument fair back in 2007 when I first began taking violin lessons. I still have this violin and use it as a backup whenever my other violins need service. This violin has a very warm and low timbre which is also perfect when I’m looking for a less bright sound for my recordings.
What is your violin of choice now? Year, make and model? And does it have a name?
I recently got this new electric violin that I’m very proud of. It is an NS Design NXTa-5 string violin with an active pick-up which is perfect for performing live through an amp. I bought this violin in the middle of the pandemic so I haven’t had the chance to test it out on stage yet but I can’t wait to have the chance to do it! I’m not into giving names to my instruments so I just call this my “5 string electric violin”.
Describe your music.
I like to describe my music as fresh and danceable eclectic-pop. I gather up different characteristics of my favorite genres such as Latin, jazz, folk, pop, and prog rock, and blend them all together into one. I like to make people get up on their feet and sway by adding Latin rhythms to my songs even if the lyrics are sometimes sad. I just think that dance is the best way to keep the listener engaged while delivering the message of the song.
What was your first performance like?
I honestly don’t remember my first performance ever since I’ve been performing for almost my whole life. However, I remember my first few performances after I had decided I wanted to be a professional musician. Only then I began struggling with nerves and confidence, especially since I’ve always been a little introverted and shy. It has been a significant learning curve to learn to loosen up and express myself freely on stage. Back when I began taking my music career more seriously, around when I was 16 years old, I was also doing martial arts and learned a few very good breathing techniques that I began using then and still use now to calm my nerves.
Do you belong to any songwriters’ organizations like the International singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI or ASCAP?
I am currently a member of ASCAP.
What makes a good songwriter?
I honestly think there are 2 different kinds of songwriters: the cryptic ones and the straightforward ones. There’s a sound and a place for each of them and there’s also something that makes each kind of songwriter a good one: the cryptic ones are able to smoothly deliver a hidden message through imagery while the straightforward ones are more simple but relatable. Both styles are very valuable and I’ve definitely tried my hand at both but I usually prefer to be more straightforward.
How was it to premiere on Guitar Girl Magazine?
It was very exciting to premiere my new single “Shine” on Guitar Girl Magazine. This was the first time I got one of my singles premiered in the media, especially one including so many talented female instrumentalists, some of whom I’ve actually had the pleasure to meet and play with in the past!
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
The title of my first original song is “Ni Una Más” which is based on the #NiUnaMas movement. “Ni Una Más” is a protest song in Spanish that stands up against gender-based violence in Mexico and other Latin American countries. This single was the first original song I ever recorded with my colleague Rob Flax as producer and recording engineer. I learned a lot from working with Rob and thanks to that experience I was able to record my last 2 singles “Will Let You Go” (2020) and “Shine” (2021) from my own home studio during the pandemic.
What is the process of writing your music? Do you use the ukulele in your writing?
My writing process is slightly different for each song. Sometimes I come up with the lyrics first and then the instrumentation, while other times I write the other way around. In the past I’ve used the piano or loops I create to write the foundation and song structure; however, “Shine” is the first song I wrote using the ukulele. Usually, I write the string arrangements progressively during the whole process, listening to the song many times and finding frequencies or melody lines that I can harmonize with the violin or other instruments.
Tell me about your latest single “Shine”?
“Shine” is one of those songs that started with just the lyrics, which I wrote during a songwriting class I took some years back. This year I wanted to put out a song that would make people smile after all the turbulence and trauma we all experienced in 2020. I thought that these lyrics would be perfect for that so I looped back to this song and made some improvements to better fit the message I wanted to deliver. “Shine” is a song about self-love inspired by the beauty of nature and the idea that acceptance starts from within. The song’s chorus says “If everything in nature is beautiful, why wouldn’t everybody be as well?” and I wrote this is an invitation to embrace our own innate beauty and that of others.
What are your feelings about streaming music?
As a listener, I love the fact that so much music is now available to everybody. Growing up in the ’90s and 2000s, I missed out on so many great artists and their music because the legal access to new music was very limited back then, especially for indie and underground music. Now with music streaming services, there is so much out there to listen to and the algorithms make it easier to discover new artists that we might like.
However, as a musician, I think there’s still a lot to be done to pay artists fairly for the streaming of their music. I would also love to see the algorithm working in favor of artists who are not very known yet and not only those who are already popular and have a lot of streams.
The symbol # is known as the number sign, hash, pound sign and a sharp sign in music. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes Since 2007, widespread usage of the symbol to introduce metadata tags on social media platforms has led to such tags being known as “hashtags”, and from that, the symbol itself is sometimes called a hashtag.
Are people forgetting that the # is a part of music?
I’ve had a few instances when my younger students call the sharp a hashtag. However, I think sometimes as educators we need to meet our students where they are at, especially as language and symbolism continue to change and evolve over time. I often acknowledge that indeed the sharp and the hashtag look the same and sometimes I even introduce the sharp as the “hashtag looking symbol”.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Vinyl all the way. Vinyl records are not just music but also an experience, in an era when we can listen to a song just halfway and then fast forward to the next one, vinyl records allow us to give up a little bit of that control to just let the record play and enjoy it from beginning to end.
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
I’ve been listening to a lot of Selena recently and I can’t stop singing her 1995 song “Dreaming Of You”. This is a beautiful song and also so heartbreaking given that she dedicated it to her husband very shortly before she passed. However, this is also a very inspiring song to me since Selena is a Mexican-American artist who was able to make it big into the English music market.
Last year you played a sold-out show at the Sinclair, then the virus hit. Which at the time you posted the work of Dave Tree “The Future of Youth”?
That show at The Sinclair was one of the best ones I’ve ever played! I couldn’t believe the number of people in the audience all crammed together which is something hard to imagine nowadays. The Sinclair is one of the many venues in Boston that have been temporarily closed since the pandemic began among many other ones that weren’t able to make it past 2020. In regards to “The Future Of Youth”, this is a painting by Boston-based visual artist Dave Tree which I saw for the first time in 2019 at the New Alliance Gallery in Somerville, MA. Back then I took a picture of this painting because I liked the aesthetic and the concept but it never crossed my mind that we would be living a similar reality shortly after. This just comes to show that an artist’s insight into the world can predict the future. I reached out to Dave Tree personally and asked for his permission to share his work on my social media which I think is very relevant now due to all we went through during this pandemic.
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid-19 virus is going to affect the music business in the future?
In this case, I think the video saved the radio star! If it wasn’t because now almost everyone has a handy camera available on their phone at all times, it would have been really difficult for musicians to continue to share their work with the public during the lockdown. In one way or another, every musician I know took advantage of video to keep their momentum going shortly after the pandemic began, and I’m really happy we all found a convenient alternative in the form of live streams and pre-recorded performances.
However, although virtual concerts were a great alternative when the lockdown began, I think that at this point the audience is over it, especially as the country starts to open up. Streaming concerts will never compare to the magic of in-person live music and even though a lot of us are still supportive of each other’s live streams, we can’t wait till we can feel that bass drum in our hearts in person again!
Do you think that Covid-19 has been a plus to an artist career?
Absolutely! Artists had to step out of their comfort zone and reinvent the way they collaborate, perform and deliver their music to the audience. As changes usually do, this helped us grow both as artists and members of our community. I believe there’s going to be some sort of 21st-century” renaissance” as a result of all we learned during this pandemic. We all went through this collective experience even if it affected us all in different ways. We are all just waiting till it’s safe to attend and throw events in person again to finally offer all we couldn’t entirely offer during the last year.
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
My quarantine experience was ever-evolving and fortunately, I had my husband with me to get through it. After the initial shock, our first activity was to renew our apartment since we finally had time to do it and, after that was done, we set up our own home studio and dove right into music-making. At first, I experimented with recording cover videos which helped me stay practiced and build my YouTube channel a lot more. Then I decided to focus on recording and producing my last 2 singles.
Unfortunately, I lost my father at the end of May last year and this slowed down my productivity a lot. However, I know that my father would have liked me to continue making music and that was a great part of the fuel that drove me to record, release and promote my last 2 singles “Will Let You Go” and “Shine”.
How do you stay healthy during the lockdown?
The key to me was to drink lots of water, avoid binge eating, stay physically active in whichever way I could either on the stationary bike or going out on walks and being very cautious when going outside (by wearing a mask, washing my hands, social distancing, etc.) I think all of these strategies paid off in the end: I haven’t been sick at all since the pandemic began and I think I can be a lot healthier now that I am more settled in this “new normal”.
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Music is not only my job but also my hobby of choice which is why I spent a lot of time making music during the pandemic. However, during the lockdown, I rediscovered my love for video games which I completely stopped playing when I was about 10 years old. At some point last year, I began craving a different kind of entertainment, something interactive that would allow me to visit a world outside my apartment. That’s when I started playing online games such as “Stardew Valley” and Nintendo’s “Animal Crossing” which I played with my friends and my brother, as well as “Zelda: Breath Of The Wild” and “Pokémon Sword and Shield”.
Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In October that is going to change at least on Facebook. Facebook is cracking down on livestreamed shows that include recorded music with new terms of service, preventing artists from using the platform for “commercial or non-personal” purposes, unless they have obtained the relevant licenses.
The updated music guidelines state that users “may not use videos on our products [which include Instagram] to create a music listening experience […] This will include [Facebook] Live,” and stipulates that such content should be posted for the enjoyment of friends and family only.
How do you think this will change the landscape of Facebook?
I think the landscape of Facebook has always been changing and never in favor of creators. Our content gets suppressed and hidden and rarely reaches any of our followers. The only thing that makes Facebook beneficial for creators are the paid ads which, more often than not, end up favoring Facebook more than the creators (although this seems to be changing as well with the new iOS update which will provide the option to turn off tracking for Facebook ads!)
More than detrimental, I think all these new policies should push us to innovate and reinvent the way we promote our music through platforms that are not only looking for their own benefit but also for that of their users.
How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merchandise to them at the show?
In my experience, I learned that there are always ways to stay active and keep and attract more fans even if it is just online! Some examples are: Keep the momentum going by consistently creating content, remain active on social media by posting at least once a week; promote in every way you can, not only through posts and ads but also personally reaching out to your followers and asking them to support (it works!) The secret is to think outside the box and come up with an alternative route off the beaten path.
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means things like a playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
I think “pay to play” is a thing now more than ever: if someone can afford it, they can pay to get more followers, views, or streams, either if these are organic or bots. In reality, this is how part of the music industry it’s always been: a lot of it is about who you know and how much money you are able to pay to get your name out there.
By the way, I’m not saying this is necessarily a negative thing or that it is always the case, but this is an option that’s more available and accessible now than ever before and a lot more people are less against taking advantage of that opportunity. However, buying numbers is one thing but there is something that money can’t buy and that is true fans who legitimately want to keep coming back for more and who are willing to pay for your products.
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
I love the idea of holographic concerts, especially as part of reviving concerts by artists who have passed away such as Selena, Jimmy Hendrix, Tupac, Mac Miller, or John Lennon. As indie artists, we can totally use this to our advantage and sell private home concerts that can be purchased online! Wouldn’t that be cool?
What is your happy place?
My happy place is at home spending time with my husband, taking care of my plants or making music at my home music studio.
